Angry Grant McCann on Doncaster Rovers players 'letting themselves down' in EFL Trophy exit to Stockport County
ANGRY Doncaster Rovers manager Grant McCann felt that some of his players 'let themselves down massively' in the first half of his side's limp performance against Stockport County - on a night when the hosts passed up a chance of making a Wembley final following a meek semi-final exit in the EFL Trophy.
The only goal of the game arrived on 11 minutes through ex-Sheffield United midfielder Oli Norwood in an opening half which was completely dominated by the visitors.
McCann made four changes at the interval and while Rovers did improve in terms of their intensity, they palpably lacked quality against the Hatters.
Lamenting his side's slow start, he said: "This is the third game in a row now. I made three changes (at half-time) against Rotherham and on Saturday I was thinking about two or three changes, and tonight I've made four.
"And that's something we need to look at - the reason why we're starting the game so slow.
"You give people an opportunity to go and perform, but I think some of the players let themselves down tonight massively.
"That's something I need to look at moving forward, because at this football club, we need people that are willing to run and willing to fight, as well as having that quality.
"The basics of football is making sure you do that bit right and there were too many in the first half that didn't do that.
"They were too good for us first half, way too good for us. They were more physical than us, they picked up more second balls than us, they ran more than us, they had more pace in their team than us.
"That being said, we've conceded a goal which we know Oli Norwood is really good at, and we prepped the players on that.
"We said: 'Look, don't be giving any cheap kicks away'. We do, and then we're not brave enough on the wall. But I was delighted to get to 1-0 at half-time, it could have been four or five in the first half, with the chances they had."
Countering suggestions that he should have done stronger from the start - with just two players who started against Cardiff at the weekend lining up from the off, McCann added: "No, I've done that the whole way through.
"I'm sure people will say: 'why has he done that? But nobody questioned things in the early rounds.
"So as soon as you get here, why are they questioning that now? I think we've used the competition very wisely, in terms of players and minutes, things like that.
"That team beat Huddersfield. A lot of that team has played in this competition already and got us to this point.
"It's disappointing. I said to the players before the game: 'this is something that will not happen a lot in your football career, an opportunity to play at Wembley'. And there's only a handful of them in there that's done that. But we let it slip in the first half."